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Can Lithuania get past its provincialism?

EU funds make up one-third of Lithuania’s national budget in 2011. Two billion euros to be exact.

But while the country is showing an even bigger appetite for EU cash for the next EU financing period, from 2014 until 2020, its eurosceptic ranks are slowly but steadily growing.

What are the reasons for the diminishing interest in EU affairs?

Speaking before 700 European journalists at the second EuropCom conference in Brussels, the President of the EU Committee of the Regions Mercedes Bresso suggested that the EU might be facing a confidence crisis.

Does the EU communication policy need to be revised and should a new strategy be worked out?

A new approach might succeed in bringing Europe closer to its 500 million inhabitants, but for Lithuania, there is another matter at hand. Out of the 950 international journalists accredited in Brussels, down from 1300 compared to 2005, none represents Lithuania, making it the only country in the European Union with no Brussels-based correspondent.

How can Lithunian citizens receive first hand information on Europe, when there is no one to report from the city where all of Europe merges? Do Lithuanians not need to be informed on EU developments possibly affecting their country’s interests?

No Lithuanian press representation in Brussels

When the former EU Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite was elected President of the Republic of Lithuania in May of 2009, she assigned the then-Brussels-based journalist for the Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LNRT), Linas Balsys, to be her spokesman.

The LNRT management did not replace him, arguing that the EU provides a variety of first-hand information material that can easily be used by journalists covering foreign news in Vilnius.

A Lithuanian politician, who asked remain anonymous, defended LNRT’s decision, claiming that “with media digitalisation, there is no need for journalists to hop onto a Brussels-bound plane to conduct an interview in the European Parliament.” He argued that patriotism and nationalism should be on the priority list of a national public broadcaster, not “globalisation” or “Brussels.”

His words reflect the opinion held by many centre-right policy makers in Lithuania.

In a country that is still struggling with nightmarish memories from its past under Soviet rule, the idea of a Unified Europe often sounds like a curse rather than a blessing.

Is that why Lithuania does not have any press representation in Brussels?

“I do not see much interest in European affairs among Lithuanian legislators,” says Algirdas Saudargas, a Lithuanian MEP for the Conservative Party. “I would say the situation deteriorates every year,as a good deal of Lithuanian politicians care only about EU financial assistance. It is up to the LNRT to decide whether Lithuania needs a correspondent in Brussels or not, but not having one, obviously does not contribute to ‘communicating Europe’.”

Lithuanian MEP Algirdas Saudargas: “Not having a correspondent in Brussels obviously does not contribute to ‘communicating Europe’.”

Vaidotas Bacevicius, a Lithuanian MP, agrees with Saudargas: “Alas, for many Lithuanian parliamentarians, knowledge of the European Union starts and ends with the substantial EU funding allocations that Lithuania largely depends upon for its wellbeing.”

For Vykintas Pugaciauskas, a well-known Lithuanian journalist who was recently appointed press officer at Lithuania’s representative office in Brussels, the situation is “absolutely deplorable.”

“It means that many important events in the EU institutions, some including the participation of high-ranking Lithuanian officials, or even our President, go unnoticed or are scarcely covered,” Pugaciaukas says.

“How can one then expect EU policy awareness to increase in Lithuania?” he asks, noting that Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania’s neighbours in the Baltic region, have retained their Brussels-based correspondents even during the current economic crisis.

“Obviously, Riga and Tallinn understand that EU news are important for their citizens,” Pugaciauskas said. “We certainly do not have the same perception in Lithuania. There is simply no demand for this kind of news here, as most people are more concerned about how to make ends meet than about EU policies.”

“The focus on austerity measures, which also explains why the LNRT is the most underfinanced public broadcaster in the Baltics, has turned Lithuania into a very provincial country,” he adds.

“This situation reminds me of the post-war years in Western Europe, when people were mostly concerned with their daily life, but not about a unified Europe.” says Pugaciauskas.

The journalist also emphasises that Lithuania, unlike other EU countries, has no or very little political, economical and cultural interests in Brussels, although he is convinced that “the need for European news will grow in 20 years from now, when Lithuanians start living better.”

“There is a simple reason why we do not have any accredited journalist in Brussels,” comments LNRT deputy director general Rimvydas Paleckis. “Lack of money.”

Lithuanian National Radio and Television deputy director general Rimvydas Paleckis: ““There is a simple reason why we do not have any accredited journalist in Brussels: lack of money.”

“If we had we a larger budget, we would love to have our own journalists not only in Brussels, but also in New York, Berlin or Beijing. Sure, it is necessary to have a journalist in Brussels, but we cannot afford one with the current budget of roughly EUR 12 million a year. Maintaining Balsys and his cameraman in Brussels cost us over EUR 110 000 a year, a lot.”

He adds that the public broadcaster has been hard hit by the recession. Its sources of income through advertising have considerably dried out.

Paleckis stresses that the Lithuanian National Radio and Television is among the state institutions which have incurred the biggest budgetary slashes.

“Our budget has been in constant decline since 2008, plummeting 40 percent in three years. The good news is that the Lithuanian Parliament intends to increase our budget by 16 percent for 2012. Nevertheless, this is only a fraction of what we need,” Paleckis explains.

Paleckis notes that although Lithuania joined the EU seven years ago,  the mentality of many Lithuanian legislators is not “European”, but rather “provincial.”

“There are a lot of politicians who do not realise that they live in the European Union. They accept EU funding but show no interest in EU policies or the policy-making mechanism. Or they simply dodge them, arguing that they interfere with national interests. In short, the reason why we do not have a Brussels-based journalist is that there is no political interest in it. In Lithuanian politics, primitive thinking still often prevails,” Paleckis points out.

Just like the Lithuanian National Television and Radio broadcasting company, other media outlets do not have any correspondents in Brussels either.

Lithuanian conspiracy poses explosive challenge to EU parliament, a video report from Brussels and Lithuania by Brussels-based private webtv channel EUX.TV

A way out of provincialism?

An unexpected help in filling the gap in EU news coverage may however come from Egle Merkyte,  a Lithuanian journalist who, for personal reasons, recently moved to the European capital.

“We have agreed that Merkyte will occasionally report from Brussels,” says Paleckis. “But since she will contribute on a freelance basis, it will be up to her to determine what is interesting.”

 

Tags: brussels, eu, europe, european union, journalist, lithuania, media, policy, press, provincialism, reporter, reporting, representation,

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